By Cindy PearlmanNew York Times Syndicate • Friday December 13, 2013 5:10 AM

Who are the Coen brothers, really?

For decades, Hollywood has tried to figure them out — without much success.

Do they resemble the eccentric characters in their movies? Do they have a shared mind, or do
they wage epic battles behind closed doors?

Only two people know, but they don’t mind talking, at least to some degree.

“First of all,” Joel Coen said, “there aren’t usually mad calls in the middle of the night with
one of us saying, ‘I have this really great idea!’ So wipe that right out of your mind because we
do have an office we write in during the actual day.

“We don’t work that hard. We go into the office and shoot the (breeze). By 2 or 3, we say, ‘
Well, nothing is going to happen today, so we might as well have lunch.’”

Ethan Coen jumped in.

“Sometimes, literally at 3 in the afternoon, one of us will actually stand up and say, ... ‘We’l
l hit it hard in the morning,’” he said. “That’s how we work.”

The latest product of the collaboration is
Inside Llewyn Davis, to open on Friday in central Ohio.

The film, winner of the Grand Prix at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, is set in 1961 in New York’s
Greenwich Village, with the title character (Oscar Isaac) at a crossroads. His career as a folk
singer isn’t getting anywhere, and he has to decide whether to recommit himself to music or to
rejoin the merchant marine.

Broke and homeless, Llewyn must depend upon the kindness of friends, relatives and
strangers.

One of his former friends is a fellow folk singer (Carey Mulligan), who is living

with someone else but is pregnant, thanks to a one-night stand with Llewyn.

Unable to cope with the pressure, Llewyn hits the road and heads for Chicago, still looking for
his big break.

“I call this movie a road movie that goes nowhere,” Ethan said. “It’s about being young and
getting started.”

“We can identify,” Joel added. “We had those times when we thought no one would want us to make
a movie. You get to that moment where you wonder if you should continue on or look for something
else to do with your life.”

“Lucky for us,” Ethan said, “there was nothing else to do.”

Inside Llewyn Davis is unusual for the Coens in that it is set in New York, the city where
both brothers — who were born and raised in Minneapolis — have lived for years.

“This is about life in New York and that strange disconnect to reality,” Ethan said. “We wanted
to change the vibe and make this movie feel a little dreamier.”

In addition to Mulligan, the cast includes John Goodman and Justin Timberlake.

For the title role, Ethan said, “We needed someone who could carry the entire movie, but he also
had to be a musician.”

“We knew we wanted to shoot the performances live and not fake the music,” Joel added. “Acting
plus music was proving to be very difficult — and then we met Oscar. He literally walked into a
room, and we were done.”

Isaac — who has worked with directors from Steven Soderbergh and Ridley Scott to Zack Snyder and
Madonna — found the Coen experience unique.

“Above all, the Coens know what they don’t want,” Isaac said. “They have a complete and utter
lack of vanity. There was never a power play or ‘We’re the guys in charge.’ It was so loose and
collaborative.”

Music got a good deal of attention from the Coens.

Their 2000 film —
O Brother, Where Art Thou? — produced a soundtrack that won the Grammy Award for album of
the year.

For
Inside Llewyn Davis, the brothers and producer T Bone Burnett listened to hundreds of
hours of folk music to find songs for the film.

“Some of the songs we found while writing the script,” Ethan said, “because a song just seemed
like a natural fit.”

“When you define the characters, you know what musical feeling will be right for the story,”
Joel said. “It’s just an immediate reaction. The plus side is that you get to listen to a lot of
great stuff.”